As many of you know, I am a member of Story Sessions, an online community of creatives (who I am totally in love with). Throughout the year, SS offers Collectives--smaller, focused groups (think: workshop) that run for 40 days. This time around, I am joining up with Jamie Bagley for 40 Days of Blogging and following her prompts. Just fair warning: to maintain my own sanity, I am writing these "5 Minute Friday" style, meaning... I'm setting a time limit and writing without editing. The process doesn't make for the best writing, but it's just about the only way I'll follow through with 40 straight days of posting.

Prompt: Lesson learned through life experience...

I've heard it said that lasting marriages are made of two good forgivers.

Since we're less than four months out from the day Brandon and I said, "I do," I'm probably not the person to hand out advice on how to make a marriage strong or long or healthy.

But friendship? Friendship I've been doing for more than a quarter of a century, and if I've learned one thing, it's this:

Lasting friendship is made of two good forgivers, too.

After Brandon bent down on one knee, waited for my "yes" to slip out through the tears and slid a solitaire diamond on my left ring finger, we called his parents, stopped by his granny's and then drove the 15 miles to surprise my mom and dad. I called my sister, brother, and cousin, and then I finally asked him, anxious and excited, "Can I call the girls now?" He laughed and said, "Go for it. I want to get home before 2am."

He knew it would take a while.

That night, friends I've known since 1st grade and friends I only got to know in the last few years laughed, cried, and screamed with me. We talked timelines and color ideas and dates for dress shopping. We laughed, cried, and screamed some more. Finally, we hung up. And after each conversation, I thought the exact same thing:

I have the best friends ever.

Here's the truth about girlfriends: they're irreplaceable. I know there are a lot of us who swear them off somewhere along the way, claiming we just don't like girls or are too busy or can't handle the drama. And I get it, because friendship is hard. Sometimes, expectations aren't met. People don't show up. A secret is shared. A lie is told. Months pass by without a phone call and someone feels forgotten. Babies are born, weddings are skipped, jobs move us away. Life shifts and routines change and we don't handle the transition well.

There are a million different ways to let each other down.

But when we forgive, when we allow each other the space to grow and change, to not always get it "right," we develop bonds that are stronger than any single disappointment or season of separation. We learn to trust each other, to really trust each other, on a level that survives the ups & downs of this rollercoaster life. We arrive at a place of such mutual love that no matter the months or miles, we know that we know that we know that no matter what comes, we won't face it alone.

When we forgive, we acknowledge that there will be times when we will be the ones who need forgiveness. We practice a humility that says, "It's okay that you're not perfect. I'm not either," and even though there may be hurt, there is not lasting bitterness.

Two good forgivers, they can grow into a friendship that makes it from middle school slumber parties to college graduation, through new jobs and relationships and marriages, into babies and careers and lives that might look completely different than anything we imagined.

Two good forgivers, they can grow into a friendship that lasts a literal lifetime.